


The Lucas Crucible

by jujubiest



Series: The Lucas Compendium [8]
Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-29
Updated: 2015-09-29
Packaged: 2018-04-24 00:29:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4898497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jujubiest/pseuds/jujubiest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He hasn't been caught in centuries. He thought he'd perfected the art of eluding notice and capture. But now he's pinned beneath Lucas's wide, horrified gaze, his hands stained crimson to the wrists.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lucas Crucible

Adam knew--though he tried to pretend otherwise--that eventually being with Lucas would become too dangerous for one or both of them. But he'd thought they might get a few years before it all came crashing down, and he didn't think this would be the reason.

He hasn't been caught in centuries. He thought he'd perfected the art of eluding notice and capture. But now he's pinned beneath Lucas's wide, horrified gaze, his hands stained crimson to the wrists.

"Adam..." It's not a question, or an observation...it's a dreadful epiphany. Adam has always known Lucas deserved more credit than his friends and coworkers give him, but right now he wishes it weren't so. He can see the pieces falling into place behind those shocked hazel eyes, and the color fading swiftly from his face in wake of the realization. He can see Lucas going from someone who loves him to someone who fears him, and he would do anything-- _anything--_ to halt that transfiguration.

And then, quite suddenly, Lucas's face closes off all together. His jaw sets and his eyes go flat, fixed. He closes the space between them in a few long strides, pulling off his jacket and draping it over Adam's hands. Sliding an arm around him, Lucas begins to heard Adam down the alley, away from the brightly lit main street. He goes without resistance; he doesn't understand what's happening. There's something stubborn about Lucas's mouth and the tense set of his shoulders. His stride is that of a man on a mission, and normally Adam wouldn't let himself be led this way. He's used to doing the leading, either directly and at the front of the line or covertly, herding from the shadows.

But right now he stands to lose everything, and it's the first time in nearly a century that he's had anything he cared enough about to want to keep. He wants to keep Lucas, in spite of everything. In spite of his proximity to Henry Morgan, and the unique dangers that poses for both of them. In spite of the inevitable future in which Lucas is gone and he, Adam, is left alone once again, to grieve in futility. In spite of the fact that Lucas is a liability, knows too much, sees too much. In spite of the fact that Lucas just saw him throw a man from a window and then slice his throat.

He had his reasons. Contrary to what Dr. Morgan may think, Adam doesn't kill for the fun of it. He doesn't enjoy inflicting pain on other living creatures. However monstrous his reasons may seem to a whelp of barely two centuries, he does have them. Looking up at Lucas as they barrel down alleyways and back streets in the dark, connected at the hip, Adam wonders if those reasons will matter.

He doubts it. However keenly observant he is, however pragmatic and shrewd...Lucas is not an immortal. And if even another immortal cannot understand Adam's reasons, how could a man barely out of his 20s hope to comprehend them? How can Adam let himself hope for such a farfetched outcome?

Yet for the remainder of their hurried trek through Brooklyn, he does. He lets himself hope. He leans into the warmth of the man beside him, enjoys his presence though he no longer has any right to. He hopes. He almost prays.

When they stop, it takes him a moment to realize they've walked all the way to Lucas's apartment. The street is dark and quiet, the single street lamp barely flickering enough to illuminate the immediate air around it, much less the sidewalk below. Lucas herds Adam before him through the front door, up the stairs, down the hall. He hasn't spoken this entire time, and he doesn't speak now. He barely even seems to breathe until they're inside his apartment with the door closed and locked, the shades hastily drawn.

Finally, he turns to Adam. When he speaks, his voice is not the soft, self-assured tones Adam is most familiar with, but the high and slightly cartoonish sound of a panicked, perpetually oblivious M.E.'s assistant. It could almost make Adam smile, in any other context but this.

"What the hell, Adam. What the  _hell?_ "

This is the moment he should open his mouth and give Lucas the side of him Henry Morgan is most familiar with: he should be cold, and cruel. Blithe, even, about the taking of a human life. He should well and truly scare Lucas, chase him off and allow him to live the rest of his life thinking he narrowly dodged a bullet. Pain heals so much faster when anger is applied--even though it leaves an uglier scar.

But Lucas's face is no longer closed to him. He sees the horror there, and the fear. He sees the indecision, the fight-or-flight response warring within him. But most of all, he sees questions. Lucas wants an explanation. He needs it. And Adam finds he doesn't have it in him anymore, to deny Lucas something he needs. He sighs.

"May I...use your sink to get cleaned up? Then, Lucas, I promise...I'll tell you everything."

After a long, loaded moment...Lucas nods. Then he speaks, his voice still high and hoarse.

"Kitchen sink," he says. "The metal makes it easier to..." He can't finish, but Adam understands. Again, he fights a smile. It wouldn't be appropriate to smile at Lucas giving him advice about hiding blood evidence.

"Thank you," he says softly instead. "I'll only be a moment."

Lucas falls gracelessly onto the couch by way of answer. Adam gingerly removes the leather jacket from his hands and throws it in the sink to wash along with his hands, thinking as he does about what he's going to say--how he's going to explain the brutal truth of his existence to someone as brave, and kind, and trusting as Lucas Wahl.

**Author's Note:**

> There isn't a lot of context to this piece, but I think it works without it. The idea is that Lucas caught Adam in the act of murdering someone, and this is the beginning of the fallout. The other half of that fallout will come in a couple of installments, after I go back and tell how these two met in the first place.
> 
> I have about four more installments planned for this before it's done! God I miss Forever.


End file.
